Part of Growing Up
by LPlover93
Summary: Scott has made new friends in the Pack. Stiles knows this to be true. Angst galore! Set throughout Teen Wolf, including S3 finale.


And one more of angsty! abandoned! Stiles because I am a masochist who loves seeing my favorite character feel sad.

Season 3 finale spoilers, just in case, though I'm pretty sure everyone has seen it by now.

Edited (finally!) by the lovely sephiroth-heather!

Thought of writing this as soon as I saw Stiles crash, Isaac said they couldn't wait for him, and Stiles had to reach the tree trunk whilst injured.

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf or any of its characters.

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Stiles sometimes regretted not taking Peter up on his offer. It wasn't that he suddenly wanted to be a werewolf, definitely not. The perks of healing faster did not lessen the fact that people hunted werewolves, while they did not hunt normal human beings. Plus, the pack needed someone human to take pointers from on how to act normal.

Well, that was a lie. He was a spaz and he loved it that way. However, the clear downside to being the human best friend was that he often got left out. He was sure it didn't happen on purpose, but it was little things here and there.

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Once, he was in the mood for greasy burgers and had called up Scott. Scott had not answered the phone, but slid in through the window of his bedroom four hours later, stuffing the last of what looked like the burger he was craving in his mouth. Scott spoke, "I'm so sorry. Jackson suddenly wanted burgers, so we went there first."

The worst part about what Scott said was that he spoke about Jackson as if they were best friends who went everywhere together. Stiles checked Scott's phone while the latter went to the bathroom. There were texts from Allison, Boyd, and Lydia which Scott had answered, but his message was still showing as unread. He just deleted it and went back to YouTube surfing, losing the little hunger he had.

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Stiles' Dad had called him up to tell him that Melissa had invited them over for dinner at the McCall's. He was happy because he thought that his Dad would finally confess about the two of them going on secret dates at the diner.

However, all that happiness was dashed when he entered their living room, after using his own key and opening the front door, to see Isaac and Scott playing the xBox. Even that would have been fine, but Scott had let Isaac use his profile rather than starting a new game.

He spoke up, "Hey, I'm next, seeing how that's my character…?"

Scott said, "Sorry man, I'm teaching Isaac how to play so he can kick Jackson's ass later. All your bonuses were perfect for that."

Stiles seethed internally. Those bonuses were power-ups he had earned after playing 10 hour marathons with Scott. Apparently, Scott didn't remember those times as he cheered Isaac clicking on what seemed to be the last of Stiles' power-ups. And he had accumulated a LOT of them.

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Stiles had needed help on something, which is why he had gone to Lydia's place. The time of him having a crush on her had long passed. Now he hoped that she remembered him later in life, when she ruled the world and had supremacy over everyone, whether it be a werewolf, human or any other supernatural creature.

They had almost gone through the whole thing when Lydia got a text from Jackson saying they were following a lead. Stiles curiously asked Lydia, "Is this about the jockstraps someone left in his locker?"

Lydia raised an eyebrow at him, to which he said, "I promise it wasn't me! He raged a tantrum in the locker room wearing only a towel. It's a thing I don't ever want to see again."

Lydia actually looked surprised as she spoke, "I thought Scott might have filled you in. There are these creatures in town. They apparently paralyze you by singing, sort of like in that Doctor Who episode with the mark on their hands? "

Stiles was upset. He knew he whined about it a lot, but he was the research guy of the pack. He could get into any database, and most of the beastiaries were already loaded into his computer by now.

He messaged Derek, who texted back, "It was a small thing. Didn't want to worry you."

Stiles had laughed about it, two days later, when the creatures had caused gashes on most of Derek's skin, and he had to heal the natural way. It helped that Derek was again shirtless in his room, and at his mercy. He didn't take advantage though, just using copious amounts of the First-aid kit in his house, bandaging him up, till Derek's upper half almost looked like that of a mummy's.

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On a Sunday afternoon, his Dad knocked on the door. He asked, "Do you want do a Batman marathon? Like old times?"

The old times were the times just after his mother passed away. He had been given leave from the police station to take care of his son till he got his bearings back. When there wasn't anything good on TV, he put on Batman movies and cartoons. It was the main reason Stiles was such a comic book nerd. Stiles nodded immediately, wanting the comfort of his Dad after so many problems coming his way. He hated to sound like a whiner, but he kept feeling like no one wanted to hang out with him voluntarily, and even his Dad inviting him felt nice.

Three hours later, and they were starving. Stiles searched the cupboards, but seeing how he had thrown out half of the junk food, he was sure there was none. He came to a compromise with his Dad. "Let's go to Subway. I'll let you put cheese on your Sub and you can get one of the Lays' packets to eat."

Stiles' Dad wheedled, "Can I get some mayo sauce on my Sub as well?"

Stiles laughed. "Now you're pushing it. Let's go."

After a small fight, his Dad let them take the Jeep rather than in the police car. They stopped at a signal despite the lack of traffic because his Dad ordered him to. What he didn't expect was almost the whole pack in two cars beside him. Erica, Boyd, Jackson, Scott, Allison, Isaac and even Danny was there.

Stiles' Dad looked at him and inquired, "Hey isn't that…?" They had already driven away by then.

The signal was still red, so Stiles got out his phone and messaged Derek, "Not hanging out with the pack?".

Derek replied almost instantly, "Renovation on the old Hale house. Plus, I think I'm too old for them."

Stiles smiled back, "Not too old for me, you aren't." He knew it bordered on flirting, but Derek would never get it.

His Dad looked curious. "Who were you texting there? One of your gang? You can go with them if you want."

Happy mood disappearing, Stiles murmured, "I wasn't invited." He then spoke loudly, for his Dad's benefit, "I'd rather spend time with my old man. Let's go eat some calorie-less Subs!"

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After that, he didn't know how, but the pack started hanging out with him again. More like, they spoke to each other, but he at least sat with them, as opposed to in a corner of the cafeteria, looking at them like some girl in a pathetic rom-com movie.

Erica and Boyd had died, something he still couldn't believe. Jackson had disappeared, taking his idiocy with him. Derek's sister came into town, who acted a lot like Derek. Lydia ran hot and cold between crazy and an icy cold demeanor. Derek actually had feelings, and he only bared his teeth every other day now.

Stiles had realized over the summer that he had some sort of affection towards Derek. He didn't know exactly what it encompassed, but it was present. This included spamming Derek's small and useless mobile with countless texts, usually live-blogging whatever shit was happening as he did his work.

Deaton had told them that they needed a connection strong enough to bring them back up. When he, Allison and Scott went into the icy water as sacrifices instead of their parents, he hoped Derek was there, because they were barely friends, but they had that spark, that connection.

The flashback to the first time they saw Peter as a wolf was not pretty. It went through Stiles' mind for the nth time that if he hadn't asked Scott to search for the body; he might not have been bitten by Peter. The close friendship between him and Scott was almost tangible, as if he had used a time-turner. He almost imagined that if he shouted out, the young him might just have looked back.

Once they were done, and Deaton informed them they were out for sixteen hours, Scott took charge as soon as Aiden came in and started giving orders.

"I'll go catch the scent of our parents so we can track them. Stiles, you can get a head-start in searching for the tree trunk. Allison, we need you on the weaponry. Isaac…"

It was obvious Scott was uncomfortable with the fact that the girl he loved was exchanging looks with the person he thought of as his bro. Isaac spoke up, "I'll go with Allison. I'll get Mr. Argent's shirt, maybe."

Stiles did not think about how those three were going together and he had to go alone. He did not think of it. He did not…why did they always have to leave him alone? After spending sixteen hours in cold water, he'd like some company. Something to feel like everything was normal, like their parents weren't in mortal danger, like Derek and the others wouldn't die because of a crazy bitch called Jennifer.

The crash came out of nowhere. As he fainted, he thought of calling Derek for help.

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After some time, which felt like hours to him, he woke up. He looked in the rear-view mirror only to see that his forehead was a bit bloody and that he felt a little woozy. He checked his phone to see how many missed calls he had, but there were none.

He thought to himself, _they must have gotten a scent they could track. They couldn't afford to wait when it meant the lives of their parents in exchange._ It felt like he was giving explanations to appease himself.

He started the Jeep again, thanking whoever was out there that it was still in working order. For some reason, he drove through a crisscross of turns, feeling that he would realize once he was near the area where his Dad would be.

He did find the trunk. However, the area around it had sunk in, like it was trying to bury his parents alive. He had no idea where Scott, Allison and Isaac were and what they were doing. He did jump down a small hole, happy that he was small enough to get through. If he were muscular like Derek, he would have caused a landslide inside.

Stiles had the baseball bat he had smothered mountain ash on with him. He looked around to see his Dad, Melissa, Allison's Dad and Allison and Isaac trying to hold up the ceiling. He closed his eyes, trying to believe, that the stick made of wood was strong enough to hold up the entire ceiling, and propped it up. Surprisingly, it stood.

He felt strange, like the time he had to believe the mountain ash in the jar would be enough to form a circle, and it was enough, even though there wasn't that much left when he looked in. He just hugged his Dad, happy that if he died, at least he was with the last of his family when he did.

Isaac and Allison looked at his forehead with a bit of shock and guilt. He didn't look at them, just observing his dad, who told him, "I'm sorry I didn't believe you. You were right. Your mother would have believed you."

Stiles smiled at his Dad as Melissa stood in front of him and took a look at his forehead. She said, "You won't die of an infection right now. But we need to get it treated as soon as we are out of here." He laughed at the normalness.

The wailing wind stopped as Isaac's eyes turned yellow for a moment and then turned back to normal. His phone suddenly had bars in it as he got a call from Scott.

Scott asked him, "Are **you **okay?"

Stiles told him, "We are all okay." He didn't want to ask Scott why he didn't call earlier. He didn't want to tell him that he might have been dead if the accident had been more severe. He let it go, like all the other times.

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As Scott stood in the hallway, looking at all their friends being normal human beings as opposed to being troubled by danger, he clapped him on the shoulder, because no matter what Scott did, they were bros for life.

As they walked to class as Scott asked him, "One thing has been bugging me. When I called you, I didn't know you were with the others. Why did you tell me we are all fine?"

Stiles said, "Because that's what you needed to hear. Why didn't you call me earlier anyway?" He knew he sounded clingy, but he needed to know.

Scott looked guilty as he answered, "You hadn't called saying that you had a trail. You didn't reach the point we had marked out. Isaac said that we couldn't wait."

Stiles just nodded. Maybe that was life. Maybe he was the one clinging on to his best friend since childhood when all he had to do was evolve and find new friends, like Scott had done.

Just then, a text came on his phone. It was from Derek. There was a picture on it of Derek's lips being pulled up by Cora to look like a smile. Stiles smiled involuntarily and texted back, "Should this go on Facebook?"

Derek replied, "Cora sent that, but you can keep it, just for you."

Stiles sent a smiley back, and got a reply immediately, "I'll send you messages whenever I'm free. Get ready to have a full inbox."

Stiles replied, "Bring it on."

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Let me know what you think! Too angsty? Needs another chapter just for Sterek fluff? Tell me!

Love, LP xoxo


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